GT Avalanche grocery getter build

I am a big believer in making things last. It is simultaneously one of my biggest assets and my biggest flaws - I tend to hang on to stuff longer than I should.

The investment in something that will stand the test of time is always worth it, financially and emotionally. It will save you money in the long run, because you only need to shell out once, and it will allow you to create memories with whatever it is you have bought. Recent proof of this is that I have just spent a few nights camping in a tent my parents bought before I was born. It has been used every year since they bought it, often multiple times a year and in all weathers. Despite a few lost pegs, it remains a dry and comfortable place to spend a nights sleep. Because of this, I am confident that my parents are where my love for durable stuff comes from. In the nicest possible way to myself, I am definitely a hoarder. Not excessively, I won’t keep random tat that doesn’t have a purpose but I will hold on to anything that might come in handy in the future. Ripped old jeans? That can be fixed. If they really are unwearable, they can be a bag. Having a project keeps me busy, and I have something on the back burner all the time.

Over the summer of 2023, I had planned to reduce the number of bikes I had at uni to one. I had two up last year, one for commuting and general use, and the other for smashing out Richmond Park laps. This might sound excessive to some, but as any cyclist will know, the formula is always n+1, and my ‘fast’ road bike was a 90s F Moser bought off eBay 10 years ago for £200 when dad was commuting by bike. In an effort to increase space in my flat, I bought a steel Jamis Aurora Elite off Facebook marketplace. It had everything I needed; Pannier rack mounts, clearance for bigger, comfier tyres, carbon forks, bombproof Reynolds steel frame, and weighed in at 11.7kg. Hardly World Tour weight, but the road surfaces where I live in Dorset are holier than Swiss cheese, and I like jumping off curbs, so comfort and strength were more important.

It’s the perfect bike, and I was so convinced that I let my older brother have my old hybrid commuter bike, bringing me down to one university bike. This was a great idea for all of about three days, when Instagram’s dangerous late-night algorithm started drip feeding me images of 80s and 90s steel mountain bike frames that had been updated with more modern parts, making them a genuinely usable and desperately cool take on the commuter/ gravel/ rat bike. There’s someone in Holland (of course) that will take your old steel frame, usually a GT, and rebuild it from the ground up, sometimes even welding disc brakes to it. This appeals so much more to me than a modern aluminium hybrid. These things look so good with racks, chunky tyres and more modern drivetrains that I immediately abandoned my minimal bike idea and set out on a quest to build one.

Like I said, I’m a hoarder, and my dad shares this trait. The shed at the bottom of our garden is full of crap. None of it monetarily valuable, but most of it is usable with a bit of work. Luckily, I knew that buried under lawnmowers, a homemade snowbike (for all that snow the south of England gets) and an assortment of old tyres we had an old GT mountainbike. For those interested, I’m not really sure what model it is as it is completely covered in stickers, although I think it is an Avalanche from the late 80s. There’s a good chance I’m wrong, so if you know what it is, please let me know. 

As far as I could tell, it was mostly original. Drivetrain was a 3x7 Suntour groupset, which would have been reused if any of it was salvageable. Unfortunately, the triple ring was rusted through and the cassette wasn’t much better. A modern 1x set up was an upgrade for not a lot more cash, and ended up far neater anyway. The Sram X9 drivetrain was supplied and fitted by Dorset’s best bike mechanic - Luke from Chasing Tails. I have kept the brakes, although they’re a bit of a mismatch. Up front, it has a Shimano XT cantilever brake pulled by an X Lite lever. I’m pretty sure the bolts on this lever are titanium, which is a cool bonus. Out back, I have a BMX U brake in an effort to clear the 2.3 inch Schwalbe Billy Bonkers tyres, pulled through by a Dia-Compe BMX lever which has a locking feature for age-old hands-free BMX tricks, back when they had brakes. Again, pretty useless in this case but funky nonetheless.

The last time this bike was used was when my previous road bike was stolen and I was using it to ride to work. This lasted until the cranks fell off multiple times in one journey and I gave up and tucked it back in the shed. Before that, I raced it at a local enduro race for sub £30 bikes. Predictably, it was great for no more than ten yards out the start gate on stage one, when the back wheel fell out of the dropouts. 

Fast forward a few months…

I started writing this back in August 2023 when the bike was freshly built and I hadn’t covered much distance on it. It is now May 2024, and it has fairly quickly become my favourite bike. There were a few teething issues as expected, like the brake blocks had dried up and would announce to anyone within a 10 mile radius that I was trying to stop, but that was an easy fix. Also, despite upgrading the bottom bracket and cranks to a modern standard, the cranks wanted to come loose every so often. I don’t know what it is with this bike, but it seemingly doesn’t like having cranks. Other than that though, it has been a reliable companion for Deliveroo riding and grocery shopping alike. For Christmas, I received a Wald 137 front basket, which is a worthwhile upgrade to any commuter or grocery getter, I love mine. 

Considering how little you have to invest to get a bike that rides as well as this one does, it makes you wonder why they’re not everywhere. It’s agile, fast, looks great and is comfy. Not to mention that it is capable of hauling a lot of kit if you mount a rear pannier rack, as the steel is heavier gauge stuff than you’d find on a road bike so it doesn’t get wobbly when you load it up. London is a pretty busy city with commuting cyclists, and it makes my day when someone comes up and wants to chat about my bike or they’re also riding a retro home build. It has certainly become more popular recently, whether that’s because people don’t want to buy new bikes from an environmental standpoint or just because it’s fashionable, or both, it is still cool to see. Considering it is coming up to 40 years old, this bike still has a lot to give, and I will keep enjoying it for years to come.